Cellular communication networks comprise relatively widely spaced apart cellular antenna towers in order to reduce the number of such antenna towers required to provided continuous coverage, via hand-offs between antenna towers, for mobile cellular communications devices. The cellular networks were designed originally for minimizing the cost of mobile roaming of a cellular phone user by arriving a balance of customer-acceptable reception for the customer's roaming area versus the installation, antenna towers in order to reduce the number of such antenna towers required to provide continuous coverage, via hand-offs between antenna towers, for mobile cellular communications devices. The cellular networks were designed originally for minimizing the cost of mobile roaming of a cellular phone user by arriving a balance of customer-acceptable reception for the customer's roaming area versus the installation, resulted in installation of more powerful and numerically more antenna towers, their geographical density is limited by practical economics of customer acceptance of services provided.
Thus, cellular network antenna towers will always remain relatively widely spaced apart due to economic considerations. It is well known that communication of a specific cellular communication device, such as a telephone, with the cellular network is such that the antenna tower through which the device is communicating at any time, including when no phone connection has been made but the device is turned on, can be determined and is recorded in the records of the cellular service provider. Such information has been critical to identifying the general location of a user of the specific communication device. However, the location of a transmitting or receiving communication device can be determined only to within a relatively wide area, i.e., within several hundred feet. While some cellular communications devices are being equipped with global positioning systems that allow the location of the communication device to be determined much more accurately, the addition of such a GPS capability to a cellular communication device adds weight, cost and design complexity to such a device. Improving the ability of a cellular communication device to be accurately located by its communication with cellular antenna towers is technologically possible but not economically viable.
However, many cellular communication devices have been equipped with what is referred to as Wi-Fi capability without adding unacceptably to the weight, price or operational complexity of such a device. In contrast to the original design of the cellular communications networks to accommodate wide geographic coverage, Wi-Fi networks were originally designed to have very limited physical transmission range, having been assigned to work within the 2.4 GHz frequency that is also used by cordless phones and microwave ovens. Limiting the range was a practical way to assure that local communications would not be interrupted by noise or competing transmissions. Prior to installing a local Wi-Fi “hotspot” network, the installer could evaluate the operational range of the hotspot for likely sources of interference and anticipate the potential for users of the hotspot network to experience unacceptable levels of interference.
Indoor range of Wi-Fi hotspots is typically limited to about 100 to 150 feet. Outdoor range is about 300 feet. It is well known that, even as cellular antenna density increases with improved location capability, that the effective range of operation of Wi-Fi networks is increasing by way of the use of multiple wireless access points operating for the same network, range extenders or wireless repeaters, and improved antennas with greater power and elevation so that, in some cases, extends the range of communication of a Wi-Fi network up to several kilometers from such an antenna. Community-wide Wi-Fi networks are now common across the United States.
In a Wi-Fi network, each separate piece of hardware comprises a unique identifier. At a top level, the Wi-Fi network itself transmits with every packet a session set identifier (SSID) which is generally comprised of a 32 element alphanumeric identity and uniquely identifies the network. Some Wi-Fi networks are intentionally designed so that the SSID is not transmitted in outgoing packets in an ineffective attempt to keep the network from being used by unauthorized users. Regardless of the transmission of an SSID, a basic operational unit of the Wi-Fi network is the access point, a device which wirelessly communicates with multiple wireless Wi-Fi enabled devices. The Wi-Fi network is provided with at least one and, many times, multiple access points, each having a specific identifier and potential and actual broadcast range in its physical location. The Wi-Fi network may also comprises other devices which extend the range of an access point, where each of these range extenders also comprise, in operation, a specific identifier and potential and actual broadcast range in its physical location.
Wi-Fi networks can connect via a broadband Internet connection into a single router which can serve both wired and wireless clients, can connect in an ad-hoc mode for client to client wireless connections, and can connect non-computer devices to enable wireless connectivity to other devices or the Internet. Increasing the number of Wi-Fi access points in an environment provides redundancy and local roaming, thereby increasing overall network capacity by using more channels and/or creating smaller operational cells per access point. In addition, metropolitan-wide WiFi (Mu-Fi) has become a reality as a result of the use of multiple access points and range extenders. It is well known that the Wi-Fi protocol 802.11a, b, g and n are the agreed upon international standard for creating and operating Wi-Fi networks.
Turning again to communication via cellular networks, a text message capability has long been in operation in such networks. The Short Message Service (SMS) comprises a very short text message (a typical limitation is 160 characters) composed at a sender client and transmitted via wireless cellular communication to a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) which operates upon received short messages to first store the short message, determine a recipient client, and forward the stored message. The operation of a message center relieves the wireless device of the sender client from the task of assuring the transmission operation to a recipient client is completed as required. The SMSC attempts to send messages to a recipient client. If a recipient client is not reachable, the SMSC queues the message for later retry. Some SMSC's also provide a “forward and forget” option where transmission is tried only once. Both Mobile Terminated (MT), for messages sent to a mobile handset, and Mobile Originating (MO), for those that are sent from the mobile handset, operations are supported. Message delivery is best effort, so there are no guarantees that a message will actually be delivered to its recipient and delay or complete loss of a message is not uncommon, particularly when sending a message between networks. Sender clients may obtain delivery reports for transmitted short messages. These reports provide positive confirmation that the short message reached the recipient client. SMS is a very effective form of communication for short messages where the recipient client cannot presently receive a wireless communication (out of radio range), is not able to take a call, etc. SMS does not use Internet connection for delivery of the text message, thereby eliminating a requirement for Internet connection by the sender client. SMS guarantees relative privacy as opposed to transmission of an identical email transmission via Internet communication. SMS is a very secure and private person-to-person communication in the realm of wireless communications.
There is a need for integration of the short message capabilities of a sender client of a cellular network device with the physical location capabilities of that device when it is Wi-Fi enabled and can obtain specific physical location information either directly from a memory of a specific Wi-Fi network or which can be obtained otherwise.